Two student teams from the School of Architecture have got Honourable Mention for their entries to the Composites Design Challenge competition organised by the American Composite Materials Association (ACMA). The national competition encourages architecture students to find innovative ways to integrate composite constructions into architectural production.

ACMA asked approximately 150 architectural students from 23 different schools to work in teams to consider the development of a composite architectural/building component or assembly. The ACMA also supported students with a generous material donation.

The only awarded entries in the competition made by undergraduate students, the two project entries from CMU SoA received praise from the jury for their innovative use of composites in conjunction with computational methods. The winning projects were featured at the AIA Conference on Architecture in New York City during June 21-22. The winners were honoured during a special ceremony at the conference.

This accomplishment at the national level is a testament to the students' hard work and the quality of their completed projects. Other winning entries include teams from Cornell, Ohio State, and Pratt Institute

One of the two entries is which received honourable mention is PolyMorph, an installation created by aggregating modules of resin-hardened fabric. Unique to this project was a novel type of reconfigurable mold – a sort of analog parametric device which allowed the team to create subtle variations of a single fabric mold, imprinting on the final installation the textile quality of the fabric.

Honourable mention was also awarded to compoSIT, a full scale catenary-shaped canopy and bench created through iterative digital and physical prototyping. Inspired by Frei Otto and Antoni Gaudí, the team used a wooden frame and hanging fabrics to generate the desired geometry, and glass fibres and resins to harden the fabrics into a structure capable of supporting the weight of two people. (SV)